Searching Under His Robe: Judge John Roberts

It's getting impossible to keep up with the avalanche of mainstream media and blogospheric coverage of Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. There are so many great articles and posts to read, and not enough time! This is especially true if you, like Article III Groupie, have a demanding day job.*

For the time being, A3G leaves you with this quick Searching Under the Robes post. It's a collection of some of the more interesting or amusing Google searches about Judge John Roberts that have brought web surfers to this blog, accompanied by commentary from A3G.

1. John Roberts and Jane Roberts (maiden name: Jane Marie Sullivan) got married at the relatively late age of 41. The following searches suggest that some people out there are thinking that Judge Roberts might have had a previous marriage:

--"John G. Roberts, Jr." divorce

--Judge John Roberts remarried

As far as A3G knows, however, this is the first marriage for both Judge and Mrs. Roberts.

2. These web searches reflect the public's understandable curiosity about Judge Roberts's adorable children:

--Judge John Roberts children

--"john g Roberts" adoption sons

Judge Roberts does not have "sons"; rather, he has a son and a daughter. His daughter Josephine ("Josie") is 5, and his son Jack is 4. As noted in this article, they are adopted.

(Update: For more details on their adoption, click here.)

3. Senator Schumer, don't you have better things to be doing than surfing the web?

--john g roberts what's wrong with this asshole

--dark side to justice john g. roberts

People looking for dirt on John Roberts are likely to be disappointed. He was exhaustively vetted prior to his 2003 coronation as a D.C. Circuit judge, and he came up clean as a whistle. As noted by Professor Patrick J. Schiltz, a friend of John Roberts (and former Scalia clerk), Judge Roberts "has been an Eagle Scout in his personal life."

4. The person who ran this search was probably looking for information about Mrs. Jane Roberts's involvement with the pro-life organization Feminists for Life (which one can read about here and here):

--"judge roberts" wife abortion

5. Boy do we live in a great country!

--is john roberts julia roberts sister?

--"john roberts" supreme court sister "julia roberts"

--supreme court nominee related to julia roberts?

--"john g roberts" "julia roberts"

A3G is tickled pink by the notion of average, US Weekly-reading Americans** suspecting a familial connection between Julia Roberts, a leading female celebrity, and John Roberts, a leading federal judicial celebrity. Such speculation is entirely understandable, in light of what Professor Schiltz describes as Judge Roberts's "movie-star looks."

Unfortunately, much to A3G's disappointment, John Roberts is no relation to Julia Roberts (notwithstanding this funny mock news article). Judge Roberts has three sisters: Cathy, Peggy, and Barbara. Julia Roberts has one brother, actor Eric Roberts, and one sister, Lisa Roberts Gillan.

(Interested in learning more about the nexus between judicial celebrities and Hollywood celebrities? Click here for A3G's proposal to put Jennifer Lopez on the Supreme Court.)

6. What was going through the mind of the person who ran this web search?

--john roberts dancing bush nomination

Perhaps this person was looking for pictures of Jack Roberts dancing at the news conference announcing his father's SCOTUS nomination? (Such photos are available here, via How Appealing.)

Or perhaps this person was looking for this essay by Ann Coulter, in which she calls into question John Roberts's terpsichorean talents (among other things):

After pretending to consider various women and minorities for the Supreme Court these past few weeks, President Bush decided to disappoint all the groups he had just ginned up and nominate a white male.

So all we know about [John G. Roberts] for sure is that he can't dance and he probably doesn't know who Jay-Z is. Other than that, he is a blank slate. Tabula rasa. Big zippo. Nada. Oh, yeah ... we also know he's argued cases before the Supreme Court. Big deal; so has Larry Flynt's attorney.

Ms. Coulter, Article 3 Groupie thinks you're a magnificent diva -- but your intense hostility towards Judge Roberts is quite unwarranted! It doesn't make any sense to A3G -- unless you are craftily condemning Judge Roberts as insufficiently conservative in order to make him appear more palatable to the hand-wringing liberals.

A3G is still looking for fun facts about Judge Roberts -- things that haven't appeared in the news coverage thus far, such as what he likes to eat for lunch and where he likes to shop. (She has already learned that he attends Mass at the Little Flower Parish in Bethesda, Maryland.) If you have any juicy tidbits, please do email her!

(A3G thanks How Appealing and the Supreme Court Nomination Blog for their comprehensive coverage of the Roberts nomination, from which most of the above links were taken.)

* Some of you have suggested that A3G take on a co-blogger. But as you might have guessed, that's not this diva's style. UTR is a one-woman show, and A3G is too egomaniacal, as well as too much of a control freak, to share the pages of this blawg with anyone else.

** A3G means no disrespect to US Weekly, which she absolutely adores and reads religiously. In fact, if any UTR readers out there know the fabulous Janice Min, please tell Ms. Min that A3G would love to work for her!

Comments

[Mark]

Are you leftists (I am an "old-fasion liberal") completly emotionally based? You sound a little over-the-top.

[Mariafullofgrace]

OK, so they married late and either found out they or one of them was infertile or decided not to chance going through amnio, finding they had a Downs Syndrome child or some such, and decided to find cute little blonde kids (definitely not from China!) to make a family. Who knows, they could be biological children of some poor white Southern teenager, of the class that put Bush back in the White House even as Return of the "King"played against their own self interest. And no doubt the anti-choicers say bless them for not having an abortion. Or maybe she was rendered infertile by an abortion years ago. ???

[chris]

Frankly, I feel a bit superficial wondering why he didn't marry someone hotter. I worked at H & H for a summer--many of the older attys are married to good looking 20-somethings after having dumped their first wives. Wait a mintue, maybe that makes him a decent guy? I shudder to think.

[MHO]

They married at 41. Catholics, they would not want to risk a child with a birth defect (won't abort!!) so they ADOPT - a perfect alternative. Save two "fetus" from being aborted. Marrying at 41 does not mean you are gay...maybe that you were both dedicated to your CAREERS...people without careers or educations that take until you are 24-27 to complete don't understand the concept that you didn't exactly have time for dating when you were younger. People stop looking for a story where there is none!

[Beth Donovan]

You folks are a little nutty. And a lot bigoted.
Are there any faiths you approve of?

[HLSnape]

Well, Beth pretty much sums up why I won't be outing the gay clerk. Despite the fact that Roberts could be gay-friendly would help his nomination amongst liberals, the fact that the gay clerk would be barred from future SCOTUS clerk employment and held in suspicion and contempt with the Right is enough to end this conversation.

[Beth Donovan]

What is wrong with you folks? It makes perfect sense for Roman Catholics (who are against abortion) to adopt childrent - the Roberts' are probably unable to conceive.
You sound like your are somewhat bigotted against adopted children and Catholics.

[katharine]

Can you name names of the flamer law clerks who served "under" Roberts? Why is this so hush hush. This could be the reason his wife never smiles and why they, Roman Catholics, adopted children.

It took a long time for the lavender boy Chief of Staff ( Pete Williams ) for Cheney to surface in an outed Annapolis grads' book.

We really must check everything out. Why does he vacation in Ireland rather than the U.S.? Does he have dual citizenship in Ireland? Is anyone in his family a member of Opus Dei, the Marians, the IRA sympathizers inside the U.S.?

[Katharine]

Curious too.

[JudicialEye]

And why are both his children adopted?

Just a question: why did Judge Roberts mary so late?

[HLSnape]

For what it's worth, Roberts has had at least one gay (male) clerk while sitting on the D.C. Cir. I suspect at least one other clerk as well.